Anti-Russian sanctions ‘not to disrupt’ talks with foreign partners

April 28, 2014, 19:01 UTC+3MOSCOWBlacklisting top managers from Russian companies does not impede negotiations and signing of agreements with Western partners, says Dmitry Matveyev, director of the Center for Legal Regulation of Interstate Relations

MOSCOW, April 28. /ITAR-TASS/. Blacklisting top managers from Russian companies does not impede negotiations and signing of agreements with Western partners, or the functioning of joint ventures with foreign participation, an expert said on Monday.

“Talks with Western partners won’t stop. Within this context, sanctions envisage only a ban on travel to this or that country,” said Dmitry Matveyev, the director of the Center for Legal Regulation of Interstate Relations at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.

“Talks may as well be conducted in Moscow, for example, while in view of the development of modern communication means, problems can be settled and negotiations can be held in teleconferences for example,” he said. In some cases authorized persons could be appointed who were not on the list of sanctions.

The US administration cannot forbid private business to deal with this or that company, with this or that person, the deputy head of the department for foreign economic research at the Institute for the US and Canadian Studies, Mikhail Portnoy said. They could only ‘recommend against it,’ he explained.

“But American companies understand everything perfectly. So problems may emerge as to attraction of loans, as to supplies of equipment,” he noted, adding that he was not forecasting difficulties in negotiations at the level of top managers either. “Emissaries may settle emerging problems. In this case, nothing will change in particular,” he said. According to Matveyev, sanctions against top managers will not stand in the way of activity of already registered joint ventures with foreign participation.

“Sanctions envisage a ban on entry into this or that country, but I haven’t seen in any sanction list a ban on the execution of instructions,” Matveyev added.